“So you need a mechanism for places where there is no oil in the ground to inflict some hurt on Big Oil”
Another strategy “for transitioning away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner” (COP28) is to mobilize Pensions & Endowments that control money with the mission, the duty and the scale to come together in a new global consortium to:
One. Buy up hydrocarbons companies out of public markets ownership, Private Equity-style.
Two. Put them into prudent stewardship through equity payback to a fiduciary cost of money, Real Estate Equity-style.
Three. Direct them to become, and support them in being, positive contributors to a global initiative to rapidly redesign and reconstruct our global energy supply ecosystems to be purpose-built for energy sufficiency that comes complete with habitat longevity and social equity, NASA-style.
This requires a global fight to retake control of this money from the Markets that have captured that money, and are using this public money for their own private gain.
This fight is happening in New York, with Wong vs. NYCPERS.
It is happening in Maine, where a corrupted interpretation of fiduciary duty is being asserted against legislative mandates for divestment.
It will happen in many more places.
THIS is the fight for a new social narrative that will support a new social contract and a new sociology of accountability of social institutions for their institutional exercise of institutional authority true to their institutional purpose.
It is the fight for the soul of humanity in the 21st Century.
Good for Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland. I hope you are all successful in passing this legislation. I would no take this to the Federal level yet. Big Oil will sue of course, but State Supreme Courts are not as contaminated as the Federal Supreme Court. And, best of all, I don't believe a State passed and State Court approved law can be appealed to the Federal Level;, Unless it can be shown to be unconstitutional and I'm sure your attorneys will see that it isn't. California does produce some fossil fuels, but by and large our citizenry is more liberal progressive than maggot. I think we could pass a Superfund Law. We have made our largest for-profit utility PG&E liable for the cost of the forest fires it ha ignited.
I hope California succeeds in creating accountability for corporations who’ve visited such devastation on all California residents, without regard to their political affiliation.
I hope we do too. If we could get the money out of politics once and for all, we'd stand a better chance. It seems every time a good law is proposed, it gets watered down to "protect' some industry like fossil fuels or giant private utility.
‘In nature, nothing exists alone. Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of friends who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world which is just quite not fatal. We stand now where two roads diverge. But, unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s poems, they are not equally fair. The road we have been travelling is deceptively easy, a smooth, superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at the end lies disaster. The other fork in the road- the one less travelled by- offers our last, only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.’ Environmental Activist and Marine Biologist Rachel Carson
Poetry has its own laws speaking for the life of the planet.. It is a language that wants to bring back together what the other words have torn apart. We are looking for a tongue that speaks with reverence for life, searching for an ecology of mind. Without it, we have no true home, no place of our own within creation. It is not only the vocabulary of science we desire. We want a language of a different yield. A yield rich in the harvests of the earth, a yield that returns us to our sacredness, to a self-love and resort that will carry out to others.’ L. Hogan from her book ‘Dwellings’
OMG, the insanity continues. FYI, not a single person in the world would toil all day in muck and oil for free. You are the one who is paying them to do it, and using their products in polluting machines of all kinds and sizes! Grow up.
The plans for reduction of fossil fuel use in hme and building heating is not going to happen quickly. During the nterim, the policy has to include conservation methodologies that will reduce the demand for energy use. The policies and funding should be shared behind a combination of demand reduction with electrification. The increased cost of marginal electrification along with the support of reliable electric supply will extend the ambisious time table being set. The energy demand reduction can reduce fuel use, as well as reduce the electricity required as renewable resources are deployed.
I definitely think it's a great idea to put some hurt on the fossil fuel companies. Great idea. They should be fined. But I also think there's a sort of poetic irony of your first image: basically, you are asking Big Oil to pay for the damage caused to your retail district, which is the physical incarnation of our consumptive lifestyles that is responsible for the climate disaster in the first place.
A better idea would be to set up a fund from fines from Big Oil, but intead of using the money for cleaning up problems in the United States, use the money to support clean energy grids in the developing world where fossil fuel use is going to be the highest as they try and reach the American standard of living.
Interesting about the FLOODING ISSUE the fault of the oil companies. I see your point, it might work in a court of law. Understandably the cost of loss due to the flooding. Clearly, the American people are getting taxed to much for repairs, besides the insurance going up excedera.. Time will tell, clearly the American people are getting taxed over every increase on the GOVERNMENT balance. Any type of break would help, as this present government does not care for us Americans or Veterans of war BUT providing funding to illegals and overseas countries while we try to make do with what we have. I use bio-blocks wood as my form of heat and that is better than? I am not the only American who uses wood products to stay warm in the winter. Lets see how successful the "climate superfund" becomes in court, it would help the Americans with their bills. At least this is getting thought out. Well written as usual--Thank You
So much time spent on Fossil Fuel industry? And our good hard working friend Bill wonders why the climate is worsening. I do not believe that it is just the fossil fuel industry carrying the ball for endless increases in emissions. Now I gave Bill a book when he was in Maine in November
I was kind of hopeful that Bill would take a deep dive into the content of this book. Afterall, if the premise of this book is correct than all bets are off for the fossil fuel industry being the main driver of climate change and main GHG emissions leader in Northern Hemisphere. Granted there is no escaping the far reaching criminality ,misinformation , and cut throat hand of the fossil fuel giants.
I wish Bill would look into the huge flooding throughout the subarctic regions.
THE LARGEST AMOUNT OF FRESH WATER ON EARTH IS LOCATED IN THE SUBARCTIC
FROM SIBERIA TO LABRADOR.
IMPLICATIONS OF DAMMING UP TO 90% OF LARGE RIVERS BEHIND 400'-700' TALL DAMS.
*Historically, many rivers and tributaries provided water to the Arctic region, flowing unrestricted into the bays and into the Arctic Ocean (a highly sensitive and significant, but the smallest, ocean on the planet).
*24 hours a day, 7days a week, the moving water helped keep the planet and this region cooler, moving waters in general are cooler than stagnant water. After-all isn’t this the definition of a river or stream?
*From the 1950s to the mid 1980s a significant number of major rivers and tributaries in the subarctic were dammed by Canadian and Russian hydroelectric facilities. This caused the natural hydrological cycles of this region to be permanently altered with serious consequences.
*Many of these dams were huge: 400-700 feet tall and some would take a decade or more, trapping up to 90% of the rivers normal flow, to fill them. And multiple dams were added too many now destroyed rivers.
*The hydroelectric model used is called "Strict Flow Regulation" or "seasonal water discharges". What this means: The majority of water for each former river is stored in sea-size reservoirs that impound the water for up to 6 months at a time.
*This model is the most damaging to all flora and fauna and totally debilitating the ecological integrity of riverine systems.
*Waters are stored and stagnant in shallows all summer long. This leads to increases in humidity, evaporation, and large decreases in oxygen levels of water throughout the region. Solar irradiation is heating the waters.
*These flooding reservoirs have indiscriminately covered over boreal forest, tundra, and permafrost lands. Decomposition of carbon and melting of permafrost is still ongoing and releasing significant GHG emissions.
*Only in winter time for 4-6 months is electricity generated. Waters are drawn into the turbines' penstock which is located well below the top of the dams and here water temperature is around 40° F. Air temps are extremely cold creating unlimited quantities of warm water vapor released into the atmosphere along the river valleys all winter long. According to NASSA water vapor is a super potent GHG.
*The velocity at which the water is discharged through the turbines is at least 5 times greater than normal river flow and quantities of water released downstream is 5 to 15 times greater than the normal flow for a year.
*Many of the reservoirs (former rivers) are now adding huge volumes of fresh water into the small Arctic Ocean, causing desalination, altering the ocean currents along both coasts of the US, and helping to slow the AMOC current.
*The velocity of water discharges is great and with warmed water hitting the Arctic cold air, huge amounts of water vapor is released into the atmosphere and surrounding downstream regions and has been every winter for last 60 years.
*This strong velocity of discharge and heated water stored behind dams is causing downstream waters to no longer freeze in the winter. It’s now sending this warmer water into the small Arctic Ocean, melting the ice, altering natural current patterns, and destabilizing the regional and global climate.
One final thought : Vermont continues to support Hydro Quebec by purchasing their dirty hydro and about 60% of vermont's "clean"? Comes from the subarctic
To Bill McKibbons -- you got it right as to who the the bad guys - are -- but writing books and self- congratulations won't get "spit" done.
So - just to bring you personally "up to speed" - with a zero thanks for "sitting on your keyboard about the POD MOD Project - and how it could most positively "have helped" here in the US in reducing pollution at the source, i.e., from the power plants and vehicles.
But you have your own agenda - and that's fine.
I've accepted the invitation from the President of another free-world country - to take the project there / to be funded / set-up for manufacturing and installation there - first.
I'll keep commenting here - as your Don Quixote style railings continue -- because it "entertaining"; - and gives me a break - while I really do something to fix the problem.
Maybe someday in the future you will realize that the days of "The New Christy Minstels Singers" type of bringing attention on a subject -- just bring out people that agree with you or "thank you" for mentioning their books - which doesn't do a damned thing about fixing the problem.
Huge thanks for the shout-out to my book, Bill! I'm available for in-person or online book talks--inspiring and urging our generation to join the fight for a livable planet. Contact me at ClimateBoomer@Gmail.com Folks can order my book from their favorite independent bookshop or from online sellers like Amazon and Barnes & Nobel
so if big oil had announced--100 years ago, that oil was going to destroy human civilisation---is anyone naive enough to think that we would have use a single gallon less of the stuff?
C'mon
we all loved our cars, warm/cool homes, jet flights, tarmac roads---you name it.---imagine the reaction of the citizens of vermont if they'd had their heating removed in winter. (to ''save the planet"
too late now to start screaming at the oil companies, or the coal companies before them
oil kept us all in jobs, and provided big wages to most of the world.
the money i have in my bank right now--not a vast amount, but enough---can be traced directly and specifically to oil production and use. (and no---I wasn't in the oil business)
everyone demanded more of everything, the oil companies delivered, knowing what it would do to our future---too late to cry now folks---we screwed ourselves.
there is no more of everything, we burned it all, and kept ourselves warm dancing around the fire.
What the oil industry did was systematically prevent us from moving quickly to using the power of the sun to warm and cool our homes. We can actually (I know, because I do) heat our homes with heat pumps in the winter, using low-carbon energy. But we've been dramatically slowed in doing so because of the endless lobbying of the fossil fuel industry. Which some of us have worked hard to overcome, and will continue to do
Aviation emissions are higher when figuring in total climate forcing emissions. It's also difficult, scientifically, to figure out what high-altitude emissions contribute, I've read. At one point, the IPCC had those emissions as causing 3x those on the ground, but they withdrew that figure.
Bill's personal carbon emissions, due to his flying habits, may be some of the highest of any person on the planet. Should we blame the oil companies for this? What role does individual behavior figure in this? What do you think of offsetting?
Suing the fossil fuel companies sounds appealing to some, but there are still issues in my mind: first, how do you scientifically show a particular weather event is from climate change? Second, emissions are global, so you'd also have to hold national governments responsible, who own a lot of those companies and resources. Finally, at the same time fossil fuels have been destabilizing the climate, they have also added to human flourishing--growing our food, making materials, transporting us, heating and cooling.
my comment was intended to embrace the concept of our overall lifestyle---a million or more ''essential'' things we can't do without, rather than pick out certain aspects we could circumvent with a bit of inconvenience.
An EV is full of metals and plastics, no different to an ordinary car in most respects, the power source is shifted to a remote corner of the world which we can ''ignore'' as long as we have motive power, i dont think a 40ton truck can runon batteries
you dont need to fly 5000 m---but you do need a house--a brick is a block of embodied energy.
look around where you are sitting right now
mentally remove anything containing a coal oil or gas component, now put back bits that could be manufactured in any practical sense, using direct solar energy
you are still sitting naked on bare earth, starving to death
i am not in any way denigrating the work you do, i read it with interest, and have done for years, but just offering practicalities
Your references to “things we can’t do without” overlook the natural resources essential to human life: potable water, clean air, and a climate that sustains agriculture.
“So you need a mechanism for places where there is no oil in the ground to inflict some hurt on Big Oil”
Another strategy “for transitioning away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner” (COP28) is to mobilize Pensions & Endowments that control money with the mission, the duty and the scale to come together in a new global consortium to:
One. Buy up hydrocarbons companies out of public markets ownership, Private Equity-style.
Two. Put them into prudent stewardship through equity payback to a fiduciary cost of money, Real Estate Equity-style.
Three. Direct them to become, and support them in being, positive contributors to a global initiative to rapidly redesign and reconstruct our global energy supply ecosystems to be purpose-built for energy sufficiency that comes complete with habitat longevity and social equity, NASA-style.
This requires a global fight to retake control of this money from the Markets that have captured that money, and are using this public money for their own private gain.
This fight is happening in New York, with Wong vs. NYCPERS.
It is happening in Maine, where a corrupted interpretation of fiduciary duty is being asserted against legislative mandates for divestment.
It will happen in many more places.
THIS is the fight for a new social narrative that will support a new social contract and a new sociology of accountability of social institutions for their institutional exercise of institutional authority true to their institutional purpose.
It is the fight for the soul of humanity in the 21st Century.
One,
Go Vermont! You can do it!
(I know. I lived there for almost 20 years.)
And it's good to see some college campuses turning to geothermal and away from fossil fuels.
More, please!
Good for Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland. I hope you are all successful in passing this legislation. I would no take this to the Federal level yet. Big Oil will sue of course, but State Supreme Courts are not as contaminated as the Federal Supreme Court. And, best of all, I don't believe a State passed and State Court approved law can be appealed to the Federal Level;, Unless it can be shown to be unconstitutional and I'm sure your attorneys will see that it isn't. California does produce some fossil fuels, but by and large our citizenry is more liberal progressive than maggot. I think we could pass a Superfund Law. We have made our largest for-profit utility PG&E liable for the cost of the forest fires it ha ignited.
I hope California succeeds in creating accountability for corporations who’ve visited such devastation on all California residents, without regard to their political affiliation.
I hope we do too. If we could get the money out of politics once and for all, we'd stand a better chance. It seems every time a good law is proposed, it gets watered down to "protect' some industry like fossil fuels or giant private utility.
‘In nature, nothing exists alone. Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of friends who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world which is just quite not fatal. We stand now where two roads diverge. But, unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s poems, they are not equally fair. The road we have been travelling is deceptively easy, a smooth, superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at the end lies disaster. The other fork in the road- the one less travelled by- offers our last, only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.’ Environmental Activist and Marine Biologist Rachel Carson
Poetry has its own laws speaking for the life of the planet.. It is a language that wants to bring back together what the other words have torn apart. We are looking for a tongue that speaks with reverence for life, searching for an ecology of mind. Without it, we have no true home, no place of our own within creation. It is not only the vocabulary of science we desire. We want a language of a different yield. A yield rich in the harvests of the earth, a yield that returns us to our sacredness, to a self-love and resort that will carry out to others.’ L. Hogan from her book ‘Dwellings’
OMG, the insanity continues. FYI, not a single person in the world would toil all day in muck and oil for free. You are the one who is paying them to do it, and using their products in polluting machines of all kinds and sizes! Grow up.
The plans for reduction of fossil fuel use in hme and building heating is not going to happen quickly. During the nterim, the policy has to include conservation methodologies that will reduce the demand for energy use. The policies and funding should be shared behind a combination of demand reduction with electrification. The increased cost of marginal electrification along with the support of reliable electric supply will extend the ambisious time table being set. The energy demand reduction can reduce fuel use, as well as reduce the electricity required as renewable resources are deployed.
You destroy Great Lakes, you pay for it?
Amazing Bad River movie shows Great Lakes’ imminent danger!
OIL threatens Lake Superior w. Spring rain erosion.
OIL in Mackinac Straits risks 700mi of shoreline.
At 71, Line 5 is failing, but Enbridge will make $6B by plan to operate it another decade!
Biden must act NOW! oilandwaterdontmix.org
I definitely think it's a great idea to put some hurt on the fossil fuel companies. Great idea. They should be fined. But I also think there's a sort of poetic irony of your first image: basically, you are asking Big Oil to pay for the damage caused to your retail district, which is the physical incarnation of our consumptive lifestyles that is responsible for the climate disaster in the first place.
A better idea would be to set up a fund from fines from Big Oil, but intead of using the money for cleaning up problems in the United States, use the money to support clean energy grids in the developing world where fossil fuel use is going to be the highest as they try and reach the American standard of living.
Interesting about the FLOODING ISSUE the fault of the oil companies. I see your point, it might work in a court of law. Understandably the cost of loss due to the flooding. Clearly, the American people are getting taxed to much for repairs, besides the insurance going up excedera.. Time will tell, clearly the American people are getting taxed over every increase on the GOVERNMENT balance. Any type of break would help, as this present government does not care for us Americans or Veterans of war BUT providing funding to illegals and overseas countries while we try to make do with what we have. I use bio-blocks wood as my form of heat and that is better than? I am not the only American who uses wood products to stay warm in the winter. Lets see how successful the "climate superfund" becomes in court, it would help the Americans with their bills. At least this is getting thought out. Well written as usual--Thank You
So much time spent on Fossil Fuel industry? And our good hard working friend Bill wonders why the climate is worsening. I do not believe that it is just the fossil fuel industry carrying the ball for endless increases in emissions. Now I gave Bill a book when he was in Maine in November
arcticbluedeserts.com
I was kind of hopeful that Bill would take a deep dive into the content of this book. Afterall, if the premise of this book is correct than all bets are off for the fossil fuel industry being the main driver of climate change and main GHG emissions leader in Northern Hemisphere. Granted there is no escaping the far reaching criminality ,misinformation , and cut throat hand of the fossil fuel giants.
I wish Bill would look into the huge flooding throughout the subarctic regions.
THE LARGEST AMOUNT OF FRESH WATER ON EARTH IS LOCATED IN THE SUBARCTIC
FROM SIBERIA TO LABRADOR.
IMPLICATIONS OF DAMMING UP TO 90% OF LARGE RIVERS BEHIND 400'-700' TALL DAMS.
*Historically, many rivers and tributaries provided water to the Arctic region, flowing unrestricted into the bays and into the Arctic Ocean (a highly sensitive and significant, but the smallest, ocean on the planet).
*24 hours a day, 7days a week, the moving water helped keep the planet and this region cooler, moving waters in general are cooler than stagnant water. After-all isn’t this the definition of a river or stream?
*From the 1950s to the mid 1980s a significant number of major rivers and tributaries in the subarctic were dammed by Canadian and Russian hydroelectric facilities. This caused the natural hydrological cycles of this region to be permanently altered with serious consequences.
*Many of these dams were huge: 400-700 feet tall and some would take a decade or more, trapping up to 90% of the rivers normal flow, to fill them. And multiple dams were added too many now destroyed rivers.
*The hydroelectric model used is called "Strict Flow Regulation" or "seasonal water discharges". What this means: The majority of water for each former river is stored in sea-size reservoirs that impound the water for up to 6 months at a time.
*This model is the most damaging to all flora and fauna and totally debilitating the ecological integrity of riverine systems.
*Waters are stored and stagnant in shallows all summer long. This leads to increases in humidity, evaporation, and large decreases in oxygen levels of water throughout the region. Solar irradiation is heating the waters.
*These flooding reservoirs have indiscriminately covered over boreal forest, tundra, and permafrost lands. Decomposition of carbon and melting of permafrost is still ongoing and releasing significant GHG emissions.
*Only in winter time for 4-6 months is electricity generated. Waters are drawn into the turbines' penstock which is located well below the top of the dams and here water temperature is around 40° F. Air temps are extremely cold creating unlimited quantities of warm water vapor released into the atmosphere along the river valleys all winter long. According to NASSA water vapor is a super potent GHG.
*The velocity at which the water is discharged through the turbines is at least 5 times greater than normal river flow and quantities of water released downstream is 5 to 15 times greater than the normal flow for a year.
*Many of the reservoirs (former rivers) are now adding huge volumes of fresh water into the small Arctic Ocean, causing desalination, altering the ocean currents along both coasts of the US, and helping to slow the AMOC current.
*The velocity of water discharges is great and with warmed water hitting the Arctic cold air, huge amounts of water vapor is released into the atmosphere and surrounding downstream regions and has been every winter for last 60 years.
*This strong velocity of discharge and heated water stored behind dams is causing downstream waters to no longer freeze in the winter. It’s now sending this warmer water into the small Arctic Ocean, melting the ice, altering natural current patterns, and destabilizing the regional and global climate.
One final thought : Vermont continues to support Hydro Quebec by purchasing their dirty hydro and about 60% of vermont's "clean"? Comes from the subarctic
To Bill McKibbons -- you got it right as to who the the bad guys - are -- but writing books and self- congratulations won't get "spit" done.
So - just to bring you personally "up to speed" - with a zero thanks for "sitting on your keyboard about the POD MOD Project - and how it could most positively "have helped" here in the US in reducing pollution at the source, i.e., from the power plants and vehicles.
But you have your own agenda - and that's fine.
I've accepted the invitation from the President of another free-world country - to take the project there / to be funded / set-up for manufacturing and installation there - first.
I'll keep commenting here - as your Don Quixote style railings continue -- because it "entertaining"; - and gives me a break - while I really do something to fix the problem.
Maybe someday in the future you will realize that the days of "The New Christy Minstels Singers" type of bringing attention on a subject -- just bring out people that agree with you or "thank you" for mentioning their books - which doesn't do a damned thing about fixing the problem.
Huge thanks for the shout-out to my book, Bill! I'm available for in-person or online book talks--inspiring and urging our generation to join the fight for a livable planet. Contact me at ClimateBoomer@Gmail.com Folks can order my book from their favorite independent bookshop or from online sellers like Amazon and Barnes & Nobel
so if big oil had announced--100 years ago, that oil was going to destroy human civilisation---is anyone naive enough to think that we would have use a single gallon less of the stuff?
C'mon
we all loved our cars, warm/cool homes, jet flights, tarmac roads---you name it.---imagine the reaction of the citizens of vermont if they'd had their heating removed in winter. (to ''save the planet"
too late now to start screaming at the oil companies, or the coal companies before them
oil kept us all in jobs, and provided big wages to most of the world.
the money i have in my bank right now--not a vast amount, but enough---can be traced directly and specifically to oil production and use. (and no---I wasn't in the oil business)
everyone demanded more of everything, the oil companies delivered, knowing what it would do to our future---too late to cry now folks---we screwed ourselves.
there is no more of everything, we burned it all, and kept ourselves warm dancing around the fire.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/End-More-resources-humankind-unsustainable-ebook/dp/B00D0ADPFY
What the oil industry did was systematically prevent us from moving quickly to using the power of the sun to warm and cool our homes. We can actually (I know, because I do) heat our homes with heat pumps in the winter, using low-carbon energy. But we've been dramatically slowed in doing so because of the endless lobbying of the fossil fuel industry. Which some of us have worked hard to overcome, and will continue to do
i mentioned warm/cool homes, but that is just a tiny fraction of our energy consumption problem
your home is a block of embodied energy---bricks glass plastics and so on, just like mine.
yes, a home can be built without those things---it would be a mud hut or a teepee. i think there would be strong resistance to that.
the oil industry gave us the means to drive a mile to buy a newspaper., or fly 5000 miles to sit on a beach for 2 weeks.
sunpower isnt going to replace that.
that was the insanity of what we were given
The mile drive can be replaced with an E-bike or need be an EV
The plane not so much but it’s about 3 percent of emissions
Aviation emissions are higher when figuring in total climate forcing emissions. It's also difficult, scientifically, to figure out what high-altitude emissions contribute, I've read. At one point, the IPCC had those emissions as causing 3x those on the ground, but they withdrew that figure.
Bill's personal carbon emissions, due to his flying habits, may be some of the highest of any person on the planet. Should we blame the oil companies for this? What role does individual behavior figure in this? What do you think of offsetting?
Suing the fossil fuel companies sounds appealing to some, but there are still issues in my mind: first, how do you scientifically show a particular weather event is from climate change? Second, emissions are global, so you'd also have to hold national governments responsible, who own a lot of those companies and resources. Finally, at the same time fossil fuels have been destabilizing the climate, they have also added to human flourishing--growing our food, making materials, transporting us, heating and cooling.
my comment was intended to embrace the concept of our overall lifestyle---a million or more ''essential'' things we can't do without, rather than pick out certain aspects we could circumvent with a bit of inconvenience.
An EV is full of metals and plastics, no different to an ordinary car in most respects, the power source is shifted to a remote corner of the world which we can ''ignore'' as long as we have motive power, i dont think a 40ton truck can runon batteries
you dont need to fly 5000 m---but you do need a house--a brick is a block of embodied energy.
look around where you are sitting right now
mentally remove anything containing a coal oil or gas component, now put back bits that could be manufactured in any practical sense, using direct solar energy
you are still sitting naked on bare earth, starving to death
i am not in any way denigrating the work you do, i read it with interest, and have done for years, but just offering practicalities
Your references to “things we can’t do without” overlook the natural resources essential to human life: potable water, clean air, and a climate that sustains agriculture.
indeed! and the beauty of the world around us!